TWO teenage yobs who attacked and robbed a pair of older strangers, breaking one victim’s jaw, have been locked up for a total of eight years.

The surprise dead-of-night assault was announced with 16-year-old Thomas Mann’s first punch and associate Andrew Linton’s declaration: “You’re getting robbed.”

They pounced on 31-year-olds Christopher Norman and David Hutchinson as the men were about to enter a house on The Esplanade, Redcar, in the early hours of July 5.

The men were punched and kicked on the ground by the thugs, who made off with their phones and cash, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Linton put on a knuckle duster and threw a punch which broke Mr Norman’s jaw, while Mr Hutchinson was knocked unconscious, said Gale Gilchrist, prosecuting.

The men were left with cuts, bruises, swelling and grazes to their heads and bodies.

Linton was picked out at an identity parade and Mr Norman’s phone was later found in his bedroom. Mr Hutchinson’s blood was found on one of Mann’s trainers.

Linton, of Westminster Close, Eston, and Mann, of Ullswater Road, Skelton, each admitted the two robberies.

Sentencing, Judge Peter Fox QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, told the pair it was a gravely serious joint attack and their first custodial sentence was inevitable.

He said: “Both of your victims fell to the ground, both being assaulted by you with kicks and punches to the head and body.

“You expressly declared your purpose of robbery, and that you effected by taking the mobile telephone of each victim and some cash.

“I’ve seen the photographs of the external injuries of each of these victims. It is not only a shocking attack but a surprise attack, and it was a very painful one.

“No doubt it would have left no insignificant consequence.

“Neither of you has got good character to speak of.”

He sent Linton, who already had violence on his criminal record, to a young offenders’ institution for five years.

Mann had previous convictions, including another robbery when he was just 13.

For him, the judge said, even a maximum detention and training order was “wholly inadequate in my judgment for your behaviour and for you as an individual, even if you were to some extent led into this by your co-defendant.”